Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

Thank you. Now I’m comforted.

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Yes, no probs with Dim Problem. In English or Welsh. It is fairly common in rapid work emails and phone calls here. I seem to remember it coming from the US (Texas?) or Australia. Also we used to have - Consider it done, but I dont hear that much now.

Also, did anyone else just hear Aled on Radio Cymru trying to get his head around the southern word “Potch”. Very common in both languages in these parts. :grin:

Even in the north the y in wythnos can go missing (and, up there, mad things happen to the th, also).

South: wthnos
North: wsos (!)

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Would it make sense to say ’ dw i wedi codi’ to mean ‘I got up’ or is ‘Codais’ a more usual/correct way of saying it.

Both forms are acceptable, and both forms are used in speech. In this case it is simply a question of personal choice, or whatever form comes to mind first.
(You could also use the auxilliary form: Nes i godi, where you only need to remember the preterite of gwneud)

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Diolch yn fawr iawn Hendrik. Dw i’n hoffi ‘Nes i godi’!
Hwyl, Gareth

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My wife says “potchan” all the time.

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@hendrik’s answer is clear, however, fact is that in Northern Italy we’re lazy and basically use have+verb all the time, when we speak Italian, because it’s easier than remembering all the damn forms of past tense. :rofl:
Therefore we tend to use it when speaking other languages as well, maybe now while learning Welsh I can learn how to use it in English too at last! :grinning:

After some searches, my current understanding of present perfect is:

  • it doesn’t refer to as specific moment in time (like something that happened in life in general, doesn’t matter when)
  • it refers to something that’s connected to the present, because the action/situation is not finished or because the “time unit” it’s related to hasn’t finished (ex. year, day, morning, hour)

Does it make sense?
Anything else I’ve forgotten? Or forgot? I’d say the issue is still open, then present perfect? :thinking:
Would that be: unrhywbeth arall dw i di angofio?

Hi Gisella, Thanks for that info. I understand the nuances that distinguish prefect and imperfect past tenses (I learnt that when learning French years ago and it helped me greatly when I studied Italian before my trip to Italy last year) . I think my problem it that I’m not learning Welsh as fast as the creative part of my brain would like so I’m thinking way beyond my ability. I am struggling to grasp the conjugation of verbs and being able to identify which tense we are in at the moment so I’m going to concentrate on that over the next few months to try to get beyond treading water my learning of the language.
Regards
Gareth

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Oh I’m glad to hear that. But I don’t! :laughing:
I was inspired by your questions to try and clarify it (for whoever might find it useful, besides myself).

I think it takes a little patience to get used to the fact that most sentences start with a verb, and bod itself is a bit tricky.
Then mutations often make it seem it’s a totally different word, while instead it’s the same you’ve heard several times before.
But oh verbs in Welsh are so much easier than in Italian and French, I’m sure we will all grasp all the secrets of conjugation soon! :wink:

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Presumably you mean you don’t understand it in Welsh. To my knowledge past perfect and imperfect operate the same in English, French and Italian so I guess you know that much. Welsh verbs are problematic to me because it seems much easier to identify a verb in Latin languages due to their uniform endings -are, -ire, -ere in Italian, -er, -ir, -re in French. I guess in most cases the verb is identified as the beginning of a sentence yn Gymraeg, which helps but with the past tenses I know a little but not enough to know the rules. I’ll get there though!

Saw something today for the rule lovers:

Gyda/efo = “in the company of” - this is how it comes to mean possession (like mae car gyda fi etc)
â = “with”, “by means of” neu “as”

Dwi’n bwyta’r pitsa â chyllell a fforc (I don’t I’m not a saddist)
Maen nhw’n addo glaw heddiw, felly dylen ni fynd â chotiau
Bues i siarad â phennaeth ddoe

Dwi’n bwyta gyda ffrindiau
Roedd o’n nhw’n dadlau gyda thi/efo chdi

Diddorol? just me?

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Italian passato prossimo is different than English present perfect (although they look similar and in a few cases usage is the same).
While I’ve always read I’ve always read that Welsh is basically like English for present perfect.
Therefore I assumed I wouldn’t be too sure about how to use it in Welsh, since I’m not completely sure about how to use it in English!

However it’s really interesting to see how different perception/impressions about languages can be:
I’d say that verbs in Italian and French change all the time (like: ok volere, vorrei, vuoi, vorranno!!!)…which is the reason why most Italians get them wrong even being native speakers (or we use the easiest forms even when we shouldn’t).
I find Welsh verbs easy because they seem to stay always the same (apart from occasionally for one past and one future tense. While it’s usually just bod, that seem really weird in the beginning, and gwneud that you need to figure out and you can basically master all tenses for any verb.

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Yes, these are two of the most common ‘irregulars’ - the other very common ones are mynd, dod and cael, and then to a lesser extent gwybod and adnabod. Regular verbs are a doddle once you’ve cracked the pattern of the conjugations although I know doing the cracking bit can seem pretty mind-boggling when you’re starting out!

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Wondering if anyone can help me translate this…

‘Creative Lettering Co.’

Would I be right in thinking its ‘Llythrennu Creadigol Cymdeithas’? Is it possible to shorten cymdeithas in a similar way that the word ‘company’ is often shortened to ‘Co.’??

Diolch.

Here’s one … is it
“Bwrw hen wragedd a ffyn” or “Bwrw hen wragedd â ffyn”? :thinking:

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I know there was a discussion on Twitter making a case for “â”, but according to the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru it’s “a”:


But seeing as it is marked “ar lafar”, it may be a bit of a moot point, as the difference is not really discernible in speech.

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But you have to admit that “hitting old women with sticks” is just better. :wink:

It wouldn’t be cymdeithas - that’s a society rather than a company, so cwmni would be what you want here.

Cwmni Llythrennu Creadigol.

There isn’t really a short form of cwmni though. (You may see on some businesses ‘cyf.’ at the end, but that’s ‘Ltd.’, not ‘Co.’)

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I agree - far more descriptive of very heavy rain!

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